[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, good morning everybody. what do you say? it is the morning after. the morning after the first presidential debate. this is thursday, october 4. ed for a to see you today. welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv. the first presidential debate is over and what everybody is asking is what happened to the moderator? what happened to jim lehrer? he might as well not even showed up last night. he lost control of the debate

and mitt romney ran all over him like a truck crushing a bug. we don't need a moderator for the next debate. we didn't have one last night. we'll talk about it, who won who lost, is it going to change anything. first, let's take a little time out to get the latest, today's current news update as always from lisa ferguson out in los angeles. hi lisa, good morning. >> hey bill, welcome back. it is a good day to be back. good morning everyone. with the first debate under their belts the candidates are back on the campaign trail today. president obama starts out where he left off in denver then he heads to madison wisconsin. joe biden is in iowa and mitt romney is in virginia. but who wants to talk about all of that when what you really want to talk about is the debates. a lot of claims thrown around last night. we're going to do some fact checking for you this morning. but first let's start out with a bit of a recap. of the debate was moderated by mitt romney. oh wait, we mean jim lehrer who

i think it is safe to say did worse than expected. the president did not perform up to his usual standards and mitt romney came out swinging taking a very offensive approach against the president as well as jim lehrer, big barned the entire pbs crew. the debate focus around the economy as we knew it would and the candidates traded jabs over tax policies for the middle class. >> romney: under the president's policies middle income americans have been buried. they've been crushed. i will not under any circumstances, raise taxes on middle income families. >> obama: now, five weeks before the election, he's saying his big, bold idea is never mind. >> romney is saying he would push for tax relief is another flip-flop. from his statement a few weeks ago that we should not expect a huge cut in taxes if he's elected president. we'll do some fact checking for you in the next current news update. despite the lies and contradictions from romney, a new cnn poll says 67% of voters

do think he won the debate. more bill press coming up after the break. stay with us. you're about to watch an ad message created by a current tv viewer for capella university. matter. education is the key. it is the vehicle. it's the way in which we evolve. every journey is different every possibility is unique. but the beginning, the beginning is my craft. i'm an ordinary person striving to achieve extraordinary things. it started with a dream and i'm on my way there.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: karl rove accuses commerce secretary john bryson >> bill: 32 days in this presidential election. the first presidential debate is over. did it change anything? what do you say? hello, everybody. great to see you today. here we go. on a big thursday. thursday october 4. the morning after. and the post-debate goes on.

we'll be into it for the next three hours here on the "full court press" coming to you live from our nation's capital and booming out to you on your local progressive talk radio station on sirius x.m. this hour only and on current tv, of course. good to have you with us, watching. good to have you with us, listening. good to have you with us, period. thank you for being part of the "full court press." i'm bill press liberal and proud of it. up late last night as all of you were watching the debate i'm sure. and good to be back with you this post-debate day, taking a little time out from maybe an undeserved vacation but i do want to say thank you to john fuglesang, thank you to jamal simmons yesterday for sitting in, filling in. enabling me to spend a little time with the family. had to be back for the big day today. thank you also to our team here, peter ogborn and dan henning and cyprian bowlding who never get a day off.

good to see you guys again. >> we did our best without you. nice to have you back. >> bill: thank you. don't forget you can join the conversation any time by giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. that is our toll free number. and, as always, we invite you to join the chat room. it ought to be buzzing, humming today. with comments from all of you to each other. that's how you talk about the issues we were talking about on the air. go to current.com and just click, join the chat room and connect with all of your "full court pressers" around the land. what do you say? what do you say guys. by the way i have to say it was a big day for the nationals yesterday. >> it was. >> bill: i was still out of town. not able to join you at the big game. you had a good time? >> yeah, it was a great time. >> bill: good weather good crowd. cyprian was there too. cyprian was there? >> cyprian was not there. >> bill: team press was well represented.

>> it was a good time. we missed you. although i will say the nats won in convincing fashion and i think that's because you weren't there. you're their bad luck charm. >> bill: aren't you glad i stayed away, right? >> you go to the games they usually lose. >> bill: that is true. sad, sad. i'm going to get my post-season tickets. >> no. watch it on tv! in fact, don't even watch it on tv. read about it the next day. >> bill: the debate last night did get off to -- this was the only moment of unity and harmony in the entire debate. it was the obama's 20th wedding anniversary. president obama would have been in the doghouse if he did not start the debate by recognizing first lady michelle obama in the front row. >> obama: i just want to wish, sweetie, you happy anniversary and let you know a year from now we will not be celebrating it in front of 40 million people. >> bill: maybe even 50 million people. which prompted mitt romney to

get off his first zinger of the night. >> romney: congratulations to you, mr. president on your anniversary. i'm sure this was the most romantic place you could imagine here with me. congratulations. >> bill: there you go. >> a rare moment of real, genuine humor from romney bot. >> bill: it was downhill from there. we're going to have a lot of help getting through the debate. all of you, of course, again your calls at 1-866-55-press. diana, congresswoman from colorado will be joining us as well as dennis van roekel, the president of the national education association. a lot of talk about education last night. a lot of talk about teachers lately. dennis van roekel here to talk about it this morning. we'll talk to reporters on the scene in denver, here in washington, d.c. who have been covering the campaign and covering the debate and take your call. but first... >> this is the "full court press." >> bill, the biggest news in washington yesterday was not the

debate. it was not that the nationals won their final game of the season. it was that teddy won. yes, number 26 teddy roosevelt one of the iconic four racing presidents who appear after the fourth inning of every nationals home game legitimately without cheating won his first -- >> bill: without cheating? they had the -- mascot -- >> no, no, no. he did not hire that mascot. he did not pay that mascot. that mascot jumped out of the stands under its own will and power. >> bill: oh, is that right? >> he has cheated in the past. no, no no, no. this is front page of "the washington post" this morning. >> they're taking it a little too seriously too. >> bill: dan did i tell you about the easter bunny in. >> he beat george washington -- teddy's record, 1 and 526. >> you really missed out bill.

>> bill: kind of like the nats used to be. >> 7-eleven's election poll method and results hold true. president obama will win on november 6th. he's leading the convenience store chain seven election coffee sales count where customers can buy their morning coffee in blue obama or red romney cups. the count the cups method has correctly predicted several recent elections. 60% of people buying their coffee in obama's cup. 40% in romney's. >> bill: who shops at 7-eleven? middle class americans. >> a german liquor company is targeting men with its new line of spirits. "the new york daily news" tells us g spirits is offering rum and whiskey vodkas have that have been poured over chest before bottling. >> bill: is that supposed to improvement test? >> $18012-year-old single malt scotch has been poured over the breasts of this year's playmate

of the year. her picture is on the bottle. >> i was going to say is woman's chest? >> relatively famous women. >> bill: every drop that they sell has been poured over her minute. >> closest they're going to get to a playboy playmate. >> signed seth of authenticity. >> bill: that's gallons of booze. >> she lies there in the factory. >> bill: you know what i say to that. bull. can you imagine? a brewery -- a winery where every single drop has to -- >> we should sell bottles of wine that we have dumped over your chest. and then people can drink that. you could have a little bit of bill press in every -- >> bill: don't even go there. don't want that. all right. now here we are. the first debate is over. let a talk about it and let's be

honest. the expectations were high last night. i had already written half of my column anticipating that mitt romney would fall on his face. i'm looking for a phrase i can say on the radio. but i think we have to be honest with each other. it didn't quite work out the way we wanted it to. i say this, you know, as a proud obama supporter... i will do everything i can and have been doing everything i can to help this man get another four years because i think mitt romney would be a disaster. we cannot afford to go back where mitt romney would take the country. we can't afford to go back to the policie bush and dick cheney and paul ryan. but i say this as a strong obama supporter, he didn't win last night's debate. he did not meet up to our

expectations. i think he let us all down. i hate to say it. look romney came to play. i think -- romney came to play and president obama stayed home. listen. i looked at it not just as an obama supporter but as somebody who loves debate and has made a living out of debating. and started out -- look, in -- i was on the debate team in high school. i the debate team -- in delaware. i was on the debate team at niagara university. when i went to college. i coached debate. my father judged high school in philadelphia. i debated on crossfire on the spin room, on msnbc. i've debated on the road with bob novack ay and bill crystal and mary madeline

and you name them. armstrong williams. alan keys, i can't remember all of the conservatives i've been on the road with. so debate is sort of my thing. i'm sorry to say it, on points and on style, mitt romney won last debate. he came to play. obama did not. and it's not that -- i don't know what it w the president decided he wasn't going to get down and dirty but he just let mitt romney get away with too many lies. i saw last night ed schultz threw up his hand and said what happened to president obama tonight? i thought mike murphy, who was with john mccain in 2000 and then with mitt romney the last time around, john mccain -- mike murphy i thought said it well last night that mitt romney was better than his campaign, president obama was not as good

as his campaign. you know, what i -- what bothered me the most is that president obama let mitt romney get away with lie after lie after lie. because it's not that mitt romney always told the truth. he didn't. he told lie after lie after lie but the president didn't challenge him. didn't rebut those lies. $716 billion at least three times mitt romney said that president obama cut $716 billion out of medicare. i want to save medicare. he cut $716 billion out of medicare. that went right out of benefits. and he kept saying that over and over and over again. you know that's not true. i know that's not true. all of the fact checkers have said that's not true. president obama did not say last night it's not true. and if you don't rebut it, you let it stand so people watching are going to believe that crap. we know the truth. that $716 billion didn't come

out of benefits. it was $716 billion in savings from getting rid of cleaning up the system and getting rid of fraud and getting rid of misrepresentation, getting rid of overpayments on the part of insurance companies which have been stealing that money. it didn't come out of benefits. it came out of -- again, out of the insurance companies and their misrepresentation and their fraud and the $716 billion were $716 billion in savings identified by republicans and included in paul ryan's budget which republicans in the house voted for twice. and which mitt romney supported. why didn't the president say that? he never said it. never rebutted it. so there were some good back and forth on healthcare, for example. just a couple of examples. president obama pointed out

yeah romney's quick to say he's going to repeal it but he won't tell us what's going to take its place. >> obama: governor romney says we should replace it. i'm just going to repeal it but we can replace it with something but the problem is he hasn't described what exactly we would replace it with other than saying we're going to leave it to the states. >> bill: good point. president should have driven the point home. mitt romney kept telling the lie that president obama is about a federal takeover of healthcare. >> romney: telling a patient and a doctor who kind of treatment they can have. that's the wrong way to go. the private market and individual responsibility always work best. >> bill: right to the very, very end, jim lehrer, we'll get into jim lehrer later by the way. he was a disaster. total disaster. but jim lehrer right toward the end asked them about how they could get rid of this gridlock in washington, d.c. and whether -- how they could bring both parties together. mitt romney says oh, here's what

i'll do. >> romney: as president i'll sit down -- the day after i get elected, i'll sit down with the democratic leaders as well as republican leaders as we did in my state we met every monday for a couple of hours and talked about the issues and the challenges in our state in that case. we have to work on a collaborative basis. >> bill: president obama says -- this is as close as he came to saying you're talking about both sides of your mouth mittens. >> obama: i think romney will have a busy first day to repeal obama care. >> bill: i still have to tell you, i don't know what happened to president obama last night. where mitt romney was aggressive, he was eloof. romney was assertive, the president rolled over. why? the big question is will it change the nature of this debate? will it change the course of this debate? your comments about the debate last night. your comments about the president's performance or lack

of. your comments, will this change anything in the next 32 days? 1-866-55-press. it's the "full court press" on thursday, october 4. >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. that is a whole bunch of bunk. the powerful may steal an election, but they can't steal democracy.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: here we go. 25 minutes after the hour. thursday, the morning after the first presidential debate. disappointing performance on the part of the president i'm

afraid. even though -- you know, mitt romney -- he reminded me of paul ryan. all he did was tell one lie after another. boom boom, boom, boom, boom. but in a debate, you gotta stand up and say that's not true. here's the truth! and the president just missed several opportunities to do that i believe. not that it was a total disaster for obama. it is just that he let mitt romney get away with too much. kathy is calling from long island. hey, kathy, good morning. what do you say? >> caller: hey, bill. it is interesting that -- you don't think it was a total disaster. as i watched it, minute after minute, i kept waiting for it to turn around back into obama's favor. i kept waiting for his moment to shine. >> bill: so did i. >> caller: there was none. and you know, as i watched i'm thinking, you know, you're talking about the $716 billion talk about ryan's plan, social security. what about the social security?

>> bill: kathy just on that point, the president started out on social security by saying now i'm sure governor romney and i both agree on social security. and i just about died. no! you know, on that -- just to finish that, paul ryan wants to privatize social security. he's the champion of it and mitt romney put him on the ticket. so tie romney to ryan on social security. why didn't the president do that? >> caller: right. what about talking about his job failure in massachusetts? what about talking about that? but you know the biggest thing he missed, what has resonated in the last week in this country was that 47%. you had the opportunity and he sat back. you know, i'm telling you this could be the turning point in this election and obama was ill prepared. >> bill: i hope you're wrong about the turning point but you're right about the 47%. never, never, never brought it

up. why not? thanks kathy. john in sarasota, florida. >> bill: can you hear me it is bill press. >> caller: i love current tv! >> bill: thank you. >> caller: i love current tv. i love the morning programming. thank god i have something else to listen to in the early morning. >> bill: make your point real quick, john. >> caller: quickly. god almighty, i've been frustrated all night. we have the supreme court on the line here for the next 30 or 40 years if we lose this election. we have the new deal on the line. >> bill: yes. >> caller: they take the senate, keep the house and romney turns this around because of -- how can obama not prepare for this debate? >> bill: well, you know -- i'll tell you what, maybe he shouldn't have hired john kerry as his debate coach. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

and i'm just blanking a little bit. i think his phrase for it was i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today...

>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: hey, how about it. 33 minutes after the hour now on a thursday morning. the morning after the debate. it is the "full court press." coming to you live from our nation's capital. and brought to you today by the international association of machinists. yeah, you bet the good men and women of the machinist's union under president tom buffenbarger sharpening the edge on the global economy. for more information on their good work, go to goiam.org.

it rolls on and on. the obama hate machine with the koch brothers and foster friess and karl rove and all the rest. that's my latest book. and the paperback. the "the obama hate machine" is out in your book stores. if you want a signed copy, i've got a pile of them here to sign before i leave again later today. just go to our web site at billpressshow.com. let us know how you want it signed, to whom and we'll get it out to you right away. back to last night's debate. you know, kathy made the point about the 47%. i was -- i had a bad feeling from the very start. i thought president obama's opening statement -- look, the campaign has been very, very good i believe the obama campaign in painting this election as a choice. it is a stark choice. it's a choice between policies that move this country forward

in a new way with a new direction, a new emphasis, for example, on renewable energy, a new emphasis on universal healthcare, a new emphasis on human rights and human dignity education, all of those things that we feel important or going back to the policies of letting wall street do whatever it wants with no government oversight whatsoever. the policies of starting a war here and a war there and a war there and never paying for it. the policies of giving the wealthiest of americans all the tax breaks while screwing the middle class. that's the choice. i thought president obama should have made -- as his campaign has, made that choice very, very clear in his opening statement and said you know, forward with me or backward with mitt. he didn't. and mitt romney, when he got his statement, he went right away

and said that guy's been there for four years and look what a mess we're in and i can do it better. it was b.s. but he delivered it right into the camera in a very -- not convincing to me but in a very -- but in a better way -- we've never seen mitt romney better and i don't think -- i don't remember seeing president obama more disappointing. chris in chicago. joins us. hello, chris, good morning. what do you say? >> caller: good morning, bill. i blame you for this. you had no business traveling anywhere when these debates were going on. i couldn't sleep at all. this reminds me of the bears and the bulls for chicago. get us all behind up and then all of a sudden failure. doesn't obama know -- i mean suppression laws are going on. we're out here fighting for him. >> bill: voter suppression. never mentioned that. >> caller: i.d. laws. we're fighting on the ground for him and he comes not ready to play. he should have said a b c d. where was the boxing going on?

>> bill: you know, he knows his stuff. you know he knows this stuff. you know he was frustrated last night. i don't know why he didn't -- maybe he felt he couldn't engage but you know, i thought he had to. we wanted him to. >> caller: he was campaigning too much. maybe he needed three days to lay down and relax. maybe he's been doing too much. >> bill: i don't know. but they spent two days in henderson, nevada with john kerry preparing for this debate. i guess -- as i said before the break, maybe hiring john kerry as his debate coach was the first mistake. lee in los angeles. what do you say? >> caller: hi, bill press. i've been with you here in california. >> bill: we had some good days out there lee. >> caller: we did. you know what, bill? i didn't understand this one. but mitt romney came out

animated. obama came out subdued. i'm wondering -- whoever has his ear, what kind of advice did he get? because every time i turn around he's not on the offensive. he's on the defensive. >> bill: yeah. >> caller: with these republicans, you got to stay on the offensive. >> bill: absolutely. >> caller: come out with lie after lie after lie. and they're going to do it until it almost makes you believe the lie until you fact check. out on the stand he wasn't prepared. wait a minute. he had -- american people have voted him ahead of romney so far. so how could you get there and i hate to say it and just stumble like this? >> bill: you're not the first one to use the word stumble. glen said that in pretty -- in politico this morning. maybe he felt -- look, this

thing's in the bag. i'm not going to blow it. by getting too assertive and too aggressive here but uh-huh. this thing ain't in the bag. far from it. not at all. and for millions of people last night, you know, we're into this all the time. okay? you and i. we do that every day. we do it for three hours every day. on radio and on television. so we're into all of these -- a lot of people watching last night who were not. for a lot of people last night believe it or not the first time they've seen barack obama in four years and the first time they've seen mitt romney. >> we watch this stuff all the time. >> bill: that debate was not for us. it was for the undecideds. >> not to say -- for example, my wife is not an undecided voter but she doesn't follow this stuff as closely as we did so we sat down to watch it together and 30 minutes in, she looks at me and she's not a very political person and she looks

at me, what is he doing? he's not winning this debate. he's not coming off very well. and so you know, it is not just something that we're in a bubble and we follow this all the time. he really didn't do a good job. >> bill: no. i think people were waiting for him. they would hear romney say something and they were waiting for him -- again i keep coming back to that -- >> i'm still waiting for it. >> bill: i keep coming back to the $716 billion. it drove me freakin' crazy! because i know that it's phoney-baloney. it's been called phoney-baloney by politifact and "the washington post" and "the new york times" and every independent fact checker. and i kept waiting for obama to boom! nail him on it! and he never never once. he let romney get away with it. why? i don't get it. >> bill: diane in bowhead city arizona. >> caller: hi, bill. how are you? >> bill: thank you. good to hear from you. >> caller: i agree with

everything you just said and especially the caller right before me. we were so disappointed. and we feel that president obama doesn't realize on these debates this is like a job interview. he's got to win his job again. he's so involved in his job right now that when he comes to the debates he just -- i don't know. i think he just -- >> bill: that's a good point. it is a job interview diane. that's a very good point. >> caller: people have to see that. he has to win his job again. and i don't think his heart was into it because i don't think that he realizes this is what he has to do. >> bill: here's the question. first of all we've got two more debates. this is the most important debate. no doubt about it. let's not kid ourselves. but do you think it will change the course of the election? >> caller: i sure hope not. oh my goodness, that would be disastrous. we're on the right road now. we were in such a mess four

years ago. it has taken four years just to get on the track. we need four more years to keep this train going. we have to have it. >> bill: i don't think the debate itself, if you look historically presidential debates like -- there are only two that people can identify in history that ever changed the course of a campaign. one of them was 1960 with john f. kennedy and richard nixon. the other was 2000 with george bush and al gore. i don't think this will change the nature of the campaign. i just wish president obama had showed up. scott in eugene, oregon. good morning scott. >> caller: good morning, bill. i agree with you. i don't think the debate last night really changed anything. i think the 47% video still really is the game changer in the campaign. and you know, early voting's already started in like ohio and iowa -- >> bill: thank god! >> caller: i think a lot of

people have already made up their minds about romney and based on the analyses i've seen about how small the pie is of the undecided voters, i just don't think that there was enough last night -- >> bill: here's what will happen scott. republicans are going to have -- are going to have wind in their sails this morning right? they had just about given up on romney before last night. they needed -- they really needed romney to do well last night. otherwise, they would have just folded their tent. unfortunately, they got the boost last night that they needed. because romney did breathe new life into the campaign. now for the next week, right it's going to be oh, my god, oh, my god, we gotta bounce now. we didn't get a bounce out of paul ryan or tampa but now yeah romney proved he's up to the task. he showed that he's capable of holding his own against president obama and this is going to re-energize the republicans.

just when we had them down for the count we let them back up. off the canvas. should never have done it. should never have let it happened. all right. more calls coming up and we'll talk to reporter from the hill, niles standage in the next segment here of the "full court press." >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >>and now to my point. that is a whole bunch of bunk! the powerful my steal an election but they cannot steal democracy.

(vo) cenk uygur is many things. >>tax cuts don't create jobs. the golden years as the conservatives call them, we had the highest tax rates, and the highest amount of growth, and the highest amount of jobs.

those are facts. >>"if you ever raise taxes on the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true! >> announcer: radio meets television. the "bill press show." now on current tv. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show". >> bill: it is 13 minutes before the top of the hour now on a thursday morning. the big thursday morning after

last night's first presidential debate. taking your calls on what it all means and whether you think it will change the nature of the debate. niles standage has been covering all -- doing most of the predebate coverage. joining us on our news line this morning, take a look at the event itself. hey, nile, good morning. good to have you with us. >> bill: what's the consensus on last night? >> the consensus is quite simply that mitt romney had a much better night than president obama did. governor romney seemed, from the outset much more animated, seemed much more vibrant, and i think the startling thing for a lot of people was how calm,

sometimes defensive president obama seemed. so by some measure the consensus is that governor romney won the debate and of course, the subsequent question is how much does that matter? but romney definitely had a good night last night. >> bill: i agree with that assessment. as an obama supporter and this is a progressive talk radio show, i made the same point sadly. at the beginning of this program do you think that president obama came in, determined not to join -- kind of join the battle and just sort of remain eloof and make his points or -- obviously mitt romney came in with a strategy and he carried it out. >> that's right. that's exactly right. i think on one hand, the fact

that governor romney has a lot of recent practice at this. he debated at 19 times at the republican nomination. so that's part of it. and one of the interesting things is that president obama at the very start of the debate seemed almost slightly nervous or slightly ill at ease which could be a consequence of not having debated for four years. but the other point that you make is also a good one. the general consensus going into this debate was that president obama needed just to not make any big mistakes. that could potentially have led to an overly passive strategy. a sense that he just had to be there and avoid gaffes and that doesn't always work the best. it is like the defense in football, it can lead to the team losing more often than it

would like, you know. >> bill: right. then the big question is -- before we get into that. that final question -- for example, on the $716 billion and i keep coming back to that because to me, it was the most telling -- the greatest missed opportunity for president obama. you know, we've heard this before. president obama cut $716 billion in benefits out of medicare. benefits to existing recipients of medicare. which is just simply not true. "the hill" newspaper every independent fact checker said it's not true. mitt romney said it at least three times. and made a big deal of it. and president obama never once rebutted that allegation. >> right. which is really startling. you're right. that -- particularly as it pertains to benefits is false. >> bill: totally false. >> that is not the case. so to permit false claims like

that to go by, not just without an effective rebuttal but without any rebuttal at all is pretty startling. the other moment that struck me was whenever social security came up and president obama said essentially, well, i'm sure that we had similar ideas. >> bill: he let romney say things. romney said, i just looked at my notes. that i will not reduce taxes by high income americans. yes, he does. his plan, the ryan plan, cuts the highest tax rate by another 10 points from 35% to 25% on those making over -- a million $250,000 a year, i guess it is. romney made these assertions and obama never challenged them at all. >> right. romney tried to recast that whole taxation argument by arguing yes i agree that i cut

the taxes on the highest earners but i don't reduce the overall share of tax burden. now that is from obama's perspective, certainly a dubious assertion at best and yet there was no real underlying or emphasizing of the fact that obama blatantly -- >> bill: here's the question. let's end with this one. do you think it changes last night's -- last night's debate changed the course of this campaign? >> i think that it puts governor romney in a much more competitive position. i'm not sure it will be a determinative of the election but it revitalizes republican hopes. i would expect to see some closing in the polls where romney has been lagging. it changes in that respect. >> bill: they got a new burst of energy. niall is a staff writer at the hill newspaper. you can follow him at the the

hill.com. thanks niall. >> thank you. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

you've heard bill's views, now let's hear yours. politically direct means no b.s. just telling you what's going on in politics today. >>at the only on-line forum with a direct line to bill press. >>it's something i've been waiting for a long time. >>join the debate now.

>> announcer: taking your e-mails on any topic at any show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey, lots of comments and responses to our question, we asked at the very top of the hour. should the kkk be allowed to >> bill: all right. on last night's debate, lynn redding says i was as frustrated as everyone but i saw the line bully that romney is. yes, obama missed golden opportunities but the fact checkers will do their jobs now. i hope so.

roger adds i liked it best when mitt romney held jim lehrer down and gave him a haircut. you're missing the important message of the debate, bill. romney showed everybody what a bully he is. yeah well, president obama should have called him on it. a listener or viewer who identifies himself or herself as blue voodoo simply says we got etch-a-sketched! that's not my plan today says romney. well if romney runs on being the same as barack obama then why would anyone change horses midstream and go through the same learning curve all over again? and anita parnell says thank you, thank you, thank you for having jamal simmons in yesterday. yes, a big thank you to john fuglesang and jamal simmons for stepping in here while i was off for a couple of days. two more hours of debate talk coming up. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: yes hello everybody! what do you say? it is thursday, october 4. this is the "full court press" on current tv. welcome, welcome to the program. good to see you this morning. and thank you for joining us. this big thursday morning the morning after the first presidential debate and the big question is where was president obama? too bad he didn't show up last night. mitt romney sure showed up. he was aggressive, he was assertive. he was animated. president obama was passive. he was eloof.

sometimes it looked like he was asleep. the difference is, of course, that president obama told the truth. mitt romney told nothing but lies. hey, we'll continue to analyze the debate from every direction and take your calls at 1-866-55-press. but first here she is. lisa ferguson standing by with today's current news update. hi lisa, good morning. >> good morning everyone. let's talk about the romney lies as promised, here is fact checking from last night's presidential debate. starting out, romney's claim that he would not raise any taxes on middle class americans. the first problem with this is that it is just the latest in a series of flip-flops. first he promises tax cuts across the board then he says don't expect any big tax breaks because he's also getting rid of deductions. now he says he will fight for middle class tax relief. as the president pointed out last night romney plans on paying for tax cuts by closing loopholes but he still will not say which ones and even if he does close them, that still

doesn't pay for his $5 trillion worth of tax cuts. that means he would basically have to get rid of middle class deductions which effectively raises middle class rates. next up, healthcare. yep. romney really made a death panel reference, referring to the independent payment advisory board which does have the power to force medicare cuts. but it is explicitly prohibited from rationing care or restricting benefits so no, it's not a death panel. romney said he would balance the budget in ten years but he still has not offered up a plan for that. in fact, he says he will increase military spending and restore billions of dollars to medicare and supposedly won't raise taxes meaning no new income. one spending reduction he did offer is cutting funding to pbs. but that's only $450 million a year which pales in comparison to other government spending. more bill press is coming up after the break.

stay with us. you're about to watch an ad message created by a current tv viewer for capella university. matter. >> i work with adults with developmental disabilities. growing up i had a single mother of four and people in the community were so helpful when they didn't even have much themselves. seeing people and their hardships made me want to make a difference in people's lives to give them hope. receiving a masters degree would open the doors for me to get into a management position where i would be able to do more for people.

>> bill: karl rowe accuses john bryson of drunk driving then has to apologize a couple of hours later when it is learned that secretary bryson suffered a seizure before having that accident out in southern california. karl rove steps in it again. can't believe a word he says. we've been telling you that for a long time. good morning everybody. welcome to the "full court press" here on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv coming to you all the way across this great

>> bill: i know you want to talk about this. and so give us a call at 1-866-55-press. 1-866-55-press. we are very pleased to welcome into the studio a good friend of ours and a good supporter of the "full court press," dennis van roekel is president of the national education association. good morning dennis. good to see you. >> good to be here. >> bill: thank you so much for coming in bright and early this morning. that's what teachers do they get up early and get on the job. >> that's what we do. >> bill: you did that for many years before you became part of the leadership. >> about 23. high school math teacher. good years. >> bill: is that right. it is fun being in the classroom. i told -- i just guest taught a course last week at american university. >> oh, yeah. >> bill: it was fun. i really do enjoy -- and i enjoyed my own days as a high schoolteacher in philadelphia and san francisco. >> i have opportunities every once in awhile to meet with students who are in college

preparing to be teachers. that's a ball. because they're kind of the in tweeners. in between being on one side of the desk and soon they'll be standing on the other side. as a teacher. >> bill: pretty scary the first time you stand behind the desk. >> oh, yeah. my first year, i was so worried about the content and what you soon learn is the content is the easy part. the rest is the hard part. >> bill: good point so we welcome you and welcome our team back this morning. peter ogborn and dan henning and cyprian bowlding. hello, guys, good morning. >> good morning. >> bill: thank you for hanging in the last couple of days while i took a couple of days off. thanks to john fuglesang our good friend from current tv and to jamal simmons for sitting in as guest hosts. we got lots of good comments from listeners and viewers about both of them. so we thank them. yesterday, everybody thinks the presidential debate was the big news of the day. we who live in washington, d.c.

know that that was not the biggest news. the biggest news was it was the final day of the season for the nats. peter and dan were there at the game. and the nats went out in style. here's the final call. >> nationals have outhit the phillies 11-6. a swing and a fly ball to left field. still back, brown is there. he makes the catch. yep. w is in the books. it is the 98-win season in 2012 for the national league eastern division champions. >> bill: eastern division champs huh? >> haven't heard that said in awhile. >> i honestly didn't think we would hear it this soon. they really turned it around. last season they weren't very good. this season they just crushed it. >> bill: look at this. >> look at you!

>> bill: post-season payoff thanks to cyprian. isn't that great? >> that's a great shirt. i will wear that with pride. >> very nice. >> bill: very nice. for the nationals. >> we just don't let bill go to the games. every game he goes to, they lose. >> bill: when is the first playoff game? >> it's saturday, i believe. >> bill: we're really on top of it. >> dan knows. >> it depends on what happens with atlanta and cincinnati. >> bill: oh. >> atlanta is in the wild card. >> the wild card game is on friday. tomorrow. >> bill: very good. so stay tuned. there you go. for the world champion nationals. >> don't jinx it, bill. don't jinx it. one day at a time. >> bill: congresswoman diana will be joining us a little bit later. we will be talking to a couple more reporters who are in denver

for the big debate last night and again dennis van roekel, president of the nea here in studio with us. dennis, there was a lot of talk about education last night in the debate. i heard president obama say at least twice he wants to hire 100,000 more math and science teachers. part of his plan, i imagine welcome news to educators around the country. >> i think president obama's had a lot of great things about education. of course, he's been saying it for a long time. the importance from early childhood to graduating, increase the pell grants, change the loan programs so money doesn't go to the bank. it goes to kids to give them an opportunity to go to college. save 400,000 education jobs which keeps class size down. what amazed me most about the debate was i watched mitt romney, the master of etch-a-sketch. i mean will the real mitt romney please stand up? when i listen to him talk about education, i thought who is this guy? as governor, he cut education funding. they had teacher layoffs.

he drove college class up immensely. he had tax breaks to the wealthiest. he supports the ryan budget which, if that goes through there will be $115 billion cut from education. he supports vouchers for private schools. he thinks kids should have all of the education they can afford, not what they deserve and he says if you can't afford college, ask your parents for a loan. he's so out of touch with middle class america. but i didn't hear any of that last night. it was like a new guy with a new message. >> bill: he did make all of the assertions about what a great friend of education he is. without any tie to reality. or tie to his record. unfortunately, i'm afraid president obama let him get away with it. i wish president obama had said just what you said last night. but on one little factoid i heard romney say at least twice maybe three times, massachusetts schools are number one in the nation. are they? >> massachusetts has done

extremely well but they were that way before he got there. he didn't talk about what happened while he was there that he cut kindergarten and preschool. so it was really a different message and -- but i think the american public are smart enough and wise enough to catch on to this. one of the statements he kept saying is he would not support a tax break that would increase the debt. what does that mean? he supports the bush tax cuts for the wealthy. >> bill: which increased our deficit by over a trillion dollars. >> he supports the ryan budget which would take another trillion dollars of tax cuts. i don't know how you can say those things but i believe the american public know that you can't say that you're opposed to tax cuts and then support them. >> bill: yeah. it was like -- president obama said well, in fact, here's what he does. it is $4 trillion and then another $2 trillion and there's just no way that that is not going to add to the deficit. and romney's response was no, no no!

i just said -- i will not have a tax cut that will add to the deficit. so therefore what you just said isn't true. just because mitt romney says it doesn't mean it's not true. but i want to come back -- focuses on education. there was one time where the president made this link to -- from the ryan budget to necessary cuts in education. peter, do we have that clip? >> obama: governor romney indicates he wants to cut taxes and potentially benefit folks like me and him and to pay for it we're having to initiate significant cuts in federal support for education. >> bill: romney retaliated again by saying no, i won't. >> romney: mr. president, you're entitled to your own airplane and own house but not your own

facts. i'm not going to cut education funding. >> bill: what's the truth? >> the truth is that he supports the ryan budget and in the ryan budget that, will necessitate in cutting nondefense discretionary funds, that is education and it could be as high as $115 billion. that's what the ryan budget said. he says he supports that. but then he flip-flops and says but i don't support cuts to education. he can't have it both ways. >> bill: he would in fact, he did say he would like to sign the ryan budget on day one right? and the ryan budget, if you add all of that money to defense which the president kept pointing out last night, defense department itself says it doesn't want or doesn't need, right? and if you do extend the bush tax cuts, you're going to have to cut programs to make up for the lost revenue. >> mitt romney was well prepared. that line, mr. president, you may have a house and an airplane but you don't own the facts. that was planned. you know that.

so he got in his little line. what he didn't get in is the truth about what he says. and he's been very successful through this whole campaign. his line about etch-a-sketch is real. he reinvents himself for every audience he's in. the mitt romney that was in the presidential primary, in the republican party when that was over he became a different mitt romney. but what i say is that he knows he's supposed to stay on the lines, the right message the campaign message but the truth just keeps eeking out. the real guy comes out. that's when he talked about that education, all you can afford. that's his line. education nation. he was asked about early childhood. he said yes, he supports that and he cited an example of a private preschool in massachusetts that he supports. he doesn't get that all of us don't have what he has. not every kid going to school has a trust fund that they can rely on to make it through college. he doesn't understand that middle class america can't send

their kids to a school that has class size -- he says over and over again class size doesn't matter. but his kids went to a school where class sizes restricted to 11 to 15. so what he's really saying is class size does matter for my kids but not other people's kids. >> bill: i remember i had 55 kids in one of my classes. >> isn't that lydick louse -- ridiculous? >> totally ridiculous. he did say last night on education, two things. one was that he thought states should have the leading role, not -- federal government has no role in education. and to the extent there were any federal dollars, they should be through vouchers. he never used the word voucher but he said -- >> he knows he's not supposed to say that word. his handlers say don't say that word because the american public doesn't like it. >> bill: they know what it is and they don't like it. >> he supports ryan's proposal to make medicare a -- >> bill: a voucher program.

>> right. >> bill: what is the role for the federal government in education? >> they play a very important role. they pick up the education kids who states were not addressing. for example special education. education of kids of migrant workers. english language learners. that's programs are essential to make sure every child gets the education opportunity that they deserve. i think another role that the federal government should play a bigger part in is doing the research. they ought to be the center of really good, solid education research. why in the world would you have states do that all on their own? be the center for that. another thing that the federal government has done is really tried to level the playing field whether you're talking about elementary secondary -- elementary secondary education act or back when i was growing up, the national defense education act that had loans so that kids could go to college. the pell grant program, all of that is to level the playing field. it really shouldn't matter --

your economic status as to whether or not you have an opportunity for post-high school education. that shouldn't be the determining factor. it ought to be there for everyone. when he talked about the education that kids ought to have what they can afford, i wouldn't be sitting here today bill if that was true for me. my dad was disabled. my mom was an elementary teacher. there was no way as much as they would have loved to have paid my way to go to college, there was no way that was possible. and he doesn't understand that. and i think middle class america, if it they listen to him, they go he doesn't relate to me. he doesn't know who i am and he doesn't understand our lives. >> bill: right. dennis van roekel is with us here in studio. education was a big part of the debate last night. and a big difference. the approach to education certainly between president obama and mitt romney. your comments, your questions at 1-866-55-press. with the president of the national education association. the "full court press," thursday morning. we'll be right back.

>> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv, this is the "bill press show." the powerful may steal an election, but they can't steal democracy.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: 27 minutes now after the hour. tuesday on the "full court press." >> bill: 24 minutes after the hour. we're talking debate. and we're talking particularly education. and nobody better to talk about education and the difference between president obama and mitt romney on the subject of education than dennis van

roekel, the president of the national education association. dennis, on the ballot, before we get to our calls and more about the debate last night related on the ballot in california is a ballot measure and which would forbid teacher's unions from making any contributions to political candidates and i've heard this proposed as legislation in congress and other people are talking about it. why should teachers be able to make political contributions or teacher's unions? >> well, you know, it really is about participating in the democratic process. your civic responsibility. those of us who happen to work in education we don't write checks for $10,000. we don't write checks for $10 million like some of the super pac contributors in the romney campaign but we all like to give and participate. so we have a voluntary political action committee and it's not part of dues. it is separate and apart so i choose to give my $25 or $100 a

year along with my colleagues so we can participate in that political gain. and now in california, prop 32, what it will do is deny them that they cannot use payroll deduction to collect political action dues. so my -- it's taken out of my paycheck each month so they'll still allow dues deductions to be taken out of paychecks but not political deductions. and it is a way of absolutely silencing the voice. that's what their whole plan is to shut down everyone's voice but their own. and i mean -- >> bill: isn't it fundamentally un-american? if conservatives really believe in citizens united, for example if they really believe that money is free speech and people should be able to participate in the political process why not teachers? if it's okay for the ceo right? why not teachers? >> in my classes, all of the years i taught, i obviously never advocated for a certain candidate but i sure advocated about the political process of

being involved and i would say to that, i don't care if you register -- whether you're a democrat republican or in the -- you must be registered. you must vote. and i know many of the social studies teachers would say to their kids pick any candidate. whether it be for school board state legislature gubernatorial candidate, congress, president of the united states, choose a candidate and go down and volunteer one hour or two hours get involved. >> bill: good advice. we have time for iree in pennsylvania. good morning. >> caller: hi, bill. listen bill, i don't know -- i heard something maybe you didn't hear. i did hear mitt romney mention of vouchers and because he -- elaborated and said that you could send your children to the school of your choice. >> bill: yes. >> caller: he did say that. >> bill: i don't think he used the word voucher. that's the only point that i made. it was pretty clear what he was

talking about dennis, right? >> he was talking about parents ought to have their choice of which school to go to and the money ought to follow the student. i'm not sure. we'll have to go back and check did he use the word vouchers. >> bill: we know what he was talking about. he was talking about taking the money from public schools and putting it into private schools and religious schools. >> his solution is consistent with the other positions in that for education, if you support vouchers to go to a private school, what you're saying is i'm going to find a solution for some of the kids but what president obama's vision for america is, there shouldn't be solutions just for a few. it ought to be for all kids in america. if you're an american citizen you ought to have a good, quality public school in your neighborhood. shouldn't you have to have money to find it. >> bill: that's the difference between the two candidates. dennis van roekel, good to see you. >> thanks for having me, bill. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today...

>> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show" live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: 33 minutes after the hour. what do you say? it is a big thursday morning. october 4. good to see you this morning. thank you so much for being part of the "full court press." on your local progressive talk radio station. and on current tv. good to have you with us this morning. the "full court press" brought to you by the laborer's union international under president terry o'sullivan building a better america and that's their

web site indeed. it is liunabuildsamerica.org. we're talking last night's debate taking your calls at 1-866-55-press. here's one aspect of the debate we haven't talked about. yet we've talked about president obama's disappointing performance. we have talked about mitt romney's very aggressive, assertive performance last night there was a third guy on the stage. wasn't there? there was supposed to be a moderator on the stage. jim lehrer. what a freaking disaster! what an embarrassment! jim lehrer was last night. totally lost control of the debate! he announced here's the rules. we're going to have three segments on the economy. and then one on healthcare and then one on governing and then one on the role of government and last one on governing. he got two segments on the economy.

let romney talk endlessly never interrupted mitt romney. constantly interrupted president obama. let romney run all over him. every time he would try to -- you would hear him go -- and romney just kept talking and talking. jim lehrer asked romney a question and romney would ignore the question and just say whatever the hell he wanted. president obama, he asked him a question and then nailed him down and make him answer the question. he let romney interrupt obama. there was a half an hour where we never even heard from jim lehrer at all. everybody thought he had walked off the stage. he got two segments in on the economy. maybe one segment on healthcare. maybe 15 minutes. a mini, mini segment on the role of government. and a mini segment like left on governing, three minutes. and then -- it was just a colossal -- i'm not the only one

who said so -- before we get to the other comments, your would love your comments on jim lehrer. he was a bad choice. he's done 12 debates. put him out to pasture for god's sakes. come on! but anyhow, here's a little montage of -- you'll hear. lehrer kind of trying to be -- trying to interject himself and mitt romney just running all over him. >> romney: let's talk -- >> no, let's not. let's let him respond. >> obama: the last point i would make before -- >> ten minutes is up, sir. >> obama: before he interrupted me was -- >> romney: that point was -- >> romney: talking about -- >> excuse me, just so everybody understands. we're way over our first 15 minutes. >> bill: you're in charge, dude! take charge. >> i want to -- all i want to do is -- >> romney: let's get back to medicare. >> no, no, no. >> romney: the government can provide the service at lower

cost. my experience is the private sector typically is able to provide a better product at a lower cost. >> we're going to move to -- >> i have to respond to that which is my experience -- >> we're running out of time. respond to that. >> mr. president you're entitled -- >> gentlemen look. >> excuse me. we barely have three minutes left. i'm not going to grade the two of you and say your answers have been too long or i've done a poor job. >> obama: you've done a great job. >> bill: you've done a lousy job, jim. chris matthews last night said today moderators are supposed to be aggressive! they're going to ask a question, they don't throw it out there. howard fineman said lehrer was practically useless last night. james carvel slammed him for letting the freelancing go back and forth. rachel maddow said he got rolled

over by romney again and again and again which he did. al roker even al roker right -- >> really? sweet al roker? >> bill: tweeted i hope jim lehrer gets the license plate of the truck that drove over him in this debate. wow! >> bill: and on twitter others -- bill maher said hey lar, you're the freakin' ref. he didn't say freakin'. you're the freakin' ref. stop letting the mitt butt bully you. he can't fire you! franklin of the new republic says who was the biggest wimp -- i'm going to paraphrase here. euphemism. who was the biggest win of the night? obama or lehrer? i'm one of the few undecideds. john conservative -- liberals

and conservatives last night both dumped all over jim lehrer. jim from commentary magazine commented lehrer may be the worst moderator in the history of moderating debates. worst ever. but he really was. it was a colossal embarrassment. c.j. is calling from oakland california. what do you say, c.j.? >> caller: i think for anybody to call romney a winner, it shows he was already losing. he's still losing, i'm sorry. the debates did nothing because they didn't have a moderator. i think that lehrer was really horrible. he didn't hold him accountable to anything. i think when he did the fact checks, it is going to come out on the president's part. >> bill: yeah. >> caller: and i think it is so sad that we have no choices and the poor losers are the working people -- the working poor. thank you. >> bill: all right c.j. appreciate hearing from you from chester, south carolina, charlotte, what do you think about last night and about jim lehrer? >> caller: oh, my god jim

lehrer, depressing in a sense. what in the world they really have to retire this man. they were better off getting the man from -- at least he would have done a better job. >> bill: he would have asked tough questions right. jim lehrer just said -- he didn't ask -- like a topic. so what do you kind of -- what do you sort of think about taxes? that's not a question. and then he never followed through. never followed through on one question. >> caller: nothing. he left us hanging. we're out here fighting for our lives. we're fighting for four more years. >> bill: he let mitt romney run all over him. >> caller: i voted for obama already here in south carolina. >> bill: all right! >> caller: god bless us. keep the fight bill. >> bill: all right charlotte thank you. you know what? that's one good thing. 34 states, early voting has already started in 34 states. a lot of those votes are in the

bank. but still, there is a question -- there are believe it or not some undecideds and we've been -- this question in addition to -- talking about jim lehrer this question we've been following through the morning which is did -- for those undecideds, those people who were looking at president obama for the first time in four years and looking at mitt romney for the first time did last night's debate do anything to persuade them? do you think it might have changed the course of this campaign? let's go down to birmingham, alabama. hi dee, what do you say? good morning. >> caller: hi, i love your show, bill. >> bill: you're very kind. >> caller: have you ever thought about the fact that mr. lehrer -- i mean he can't be that incompetent. i think did he that on purpose. i think he is down with the -- what you call them? the koch brothers. i just don't believe he was that incompetent and stupid.

it makes me sick. i'm serious. >> bill: you know what? i don't know where it came from because he's got a good reputation. he's been around a long time. he's moderated other debates. other debates he knew -- last night, he didn't even seem like he knew -- he, jim lehrer didn't know what he was talking about. >> he looked like a freshman. that's the reason why i do not believe that that was intentional -- i believe it was intentional. i'm sorry. maybe i'm a conspiracy theorist. but nobody could be that bad. >> bill: whatever the reason, i honestly don't think -- i appreciate the call. i don't think he was on anybody's payroll. certainly not the koch brothers payroll. but he didn't do his job and i can think -- if we wanted to go down that road, man. i could name 25 journalists that i know and we've all heard of that would have done a better job last night. than -- i mean let's start with

chris wallace. somebody mentioned the moderator of george ramos of univision who did a great job of the univision debates. chris matthews, go on down the list. arlene is calling from philadelphia pennsylvania. hi arlene. >> caller: hi, bill. love your book. >> bill: oh, good, thank you. >> caller: yes excellent. last night the three of us, my husband, my son and i sitting in the living room watching so angry because of mr. lehrer. he was incompetent. he interrupted the president a lot of times. and he let romney filibuster. i didn't know you could filibuster in a debate. >> bill: normally, you can't. last night, you know, lehrer let it happen. totally lost control. totally lost control. >> caller: it was disgusting. >> bill: by the way i didn't sit -- i'm sure you didn't, with a timer right? but i know that mitt romney talked more than two minutes on

and on and on and on and then when president obama was talking, jim lehrer would say your two minutes are up, sir. >> caller: yes. although it didn't change my mind about who i'm voting for that's written in stone i hope it hasn't changed anybody else's mind either because the facts were with the president. >> bill: the facts were with the president. >> caller: yes. >> bill: one of our earlier callers made the point that the fact checkers -- no doubt, it is going to be like paul ryan's speech down in tampa right? they're going to say boom. in fact, "the new york times," a big article this morning if i can grab it here, find it quickly. where they go down all of the different arguments and they point out romney said this. wrong. romney said this. wrong. romney said this. wrong. romney said this. but the people watching last night don't necessarily know all of that and i come back to point, that was president obama's job last night to call mitt romney out on every one of those lies and for some reason

unknown to man or god he didn't do it. more calls coming up. 1-866-55-press. the debate last night. and jim lehrer. >> announcer: on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >>and now to my point. that is a whole bunch of bunk! the powerful my steal an election but they cannot steal democracy.

>>i jump out of my skin at people when i'm upset. do you share the sense of outrage that they're doing this, this corruption based on corruption based on corruption. >>i think that's an understatement, eliot. u>> i'm not prone tot. understatement, so explain to me

why that is. i think the mob learned from wall st., not vice versa. >> announcer: this is the "full >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: 12 minutes before the top of the hour, thursday, october 4. and boy am i excited about next

friday. october 12. it's been a long time since i've been down to asheville north carolina. one of my favorite place on the planet. with some of the best people on the planet. love going to asheville. love being with the good folks at the revolution 880 and we're going to be doing a little book signing there for the "the obama hate machine" at avenue m restaurant on friday, october 12. 6:00 p.m. all of the details at our web site at billpressshow.com or at 880 the revolution. so come on down. anywhere in the asheville area. anywhere in the mountains of north carolina, anywhere in the whole freakin' state charlotte come on over to asheville next friday night. october 12. we'll see you there. talking about last night's debate and about the fact checkers, president obama putting in a disappointing performance unfortunately. i've gotta say. i think mitt romney won the night but on the facts, no

doubt. romney just told nothing but lies. i mention that "new york times" article, full court page here, a couple of items. on doubling the deficit, "new york times" reports mr. romney said mr. obama had doubled the deficit. that is not true. on green energy, mr. romney said half the companies backed by the president's green energy stimulus program have gone out of business. that is a gross overstatement. on the $716 billion that romney claimed that president obama cut from medicare, "the new york times" reports while fact checkers have repeatedly debunked this claim it remains a standard attack line for mr. romney. on every single issue. "the new york times" reports mitt romney lied. he did not tell the truth.

why didn't president obama call him on those lies and go after him? and why didn't president obama expose those lies last night? he just didn't do so. i don't understand it. maybe john kerry told him not to. jenny is calling from worton, new jersey. hi jenny. >> caller: hi, bill. how are you? >> bill: i'm good. thank you. >> caller: long time listener, first time caller. >> bill: all right. >> caller: i had to call about that moderator last night. he was just awful. >> bill: wasn't he terrible? >> caller: he was awful! he was just awful! but the real reason i called is mitt romney going to outsource big bird? [ laughter ] now you know he's gotta go. he's gotta go. >> bill: that again last night -- so he was trying to say -- he said he's going to cut pbs -- >> caller: i know. >> bill: he said but i love big bird. on everything, he was trying to

have it both ways. jenny, you remind me. here is the cut. let's listen to it. >> romney: i'm sorry jim i'm going to stop the subsidy to pbs and other things. i love pbs and i like big bird. i actually like you too. >> caller: isn't that something? you're going to get rid of big bird? is he serious? >> bill: and by the way jenny, i don't have the number on the top of my head but you look at whatever the subsidy is for pbs i mean in the federal budget it's chump change. it is important but it is chump change. who the he will, l does mitt romney think he's kidding? joey, what happened to our man last night? >> caller: i'm going to tell you with clint eastwood moderating. every male white old man. i'm going to say half of your callers and everybody one of your people on your show would have done a better job than jim lehrer. and i'm also going to say get

the college kids out of this campaign. because we're in a dogfight! we need some professionals in there because these people are going to lie all the way to november. we need some hatchet men like they got. get the college kids out of this campaign. they're fighting for us. that's all i gotta say. >> bill: joey, you said it loud and clear though, man. absolutely. yeah. in fact, i gotta tell you i might just differ a little with joey, i think the campaign has been pretty good on the attack, right? they've been out there on the attack. but last night president obama was not as good as his campaign has been. and mitt romney was better than his campaign has been. mike murphy said that last night, too on nbc news. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." he meant, that the private sector relative to the public

sector is doing okay but we need to do a lot more. that the alright let's break it down. mom, pop it. ♪ ♪ two inches apart, becky. two inches. t-minus nine minutes. [ ding ] [ female announcer ] pillsbury cinnamon rolls. let the making begin. ♪ ♪ hmm these smell amazing, too bad the guys aren't here we're clear. ok, swarm! swarm! hello [ female announcer ] pillsbury chocolate chip cookies.

let the making begin current tv, it's been all building up to this. >>bill shares his views, now it's your turn. >>i know you're going to want to weigh in on these issues. >>connect with "full court press with bill press" at facebook.com/billpressshow and on twitter at bpshow. >>i believe people are hungry for it.

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey, how about it. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: okay. president obama with a -- by the way, in the next hour, we'll be talking to reed epstein who is reporter for politico here in the studio. and also talking from denver with congresswoman diana during et who i believe was in the hall last night at the first presidential debate. president obama post-debate today taking a little post-debate lap. i normally would call it a victory lap but i don't think we can call it a victory lap after last night's performance. at any rate, there is a big campaign event this morning. 10:00 this morning denver time.

at sloan's lake park in denver, colorado. then he leaves denver, colorado, and going to the republic of madison. madison, wisconsin. great town. blessed with the presence of 92.1 the mic. and the president will be delivering remarks at a campaign event at the university of wisconsin in madison. after that, he will be flying back here to the white house arrives back at the white house tonight at 8:00 p.m. so another hour coming up with post-debate coverage here on the "full court press." your calls of course, welcome at 1-866-55-press. congresswoman diana in denver with the president last night. her assessment of how he did and whether it makes any difference in this campaign. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."

[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: good morning everybody. great to see you today and welcome to the "full court press" here on current tv. your new progressive morning show and boy it's good that we're together this morning. we've got lots to talk about after last night's first presidential debate. and the big question is -- not only what happened to president obama but what happened to jim lehrer? i mean he might as well not even have showed up last night. he totally lost control of the debate. he never followed up with one question. he let mitt romney run all over

him. and he interrupted president obama time after time and never once interrupted mitt romney. what a disaster! disastrous performance by jim lehrer. so that we'll talk about and a whole lot more here in our last hour together here this morning. but first, today's current news update from lisa ferguson out in los angeles. hi lisa. good morning. >> hey bill. good morning everyone. according to new surveys out this morning most americans think mitt romney is the winner of last night's presidential debate. but he still has not offered up many specifics on his policies. so he is responding to that criticism with a new ad out this morning about his jobs plan that gives the illusion of new specifics. take a look. >> romney: my tax reform plan to lower rates for the middle class and small business creates seven million more and expanding trade, cracking down on china and improving job training takes us to over 12 million new jobs.

>> it does break down some numbers but notice the action d does not cite any research or any news articles. well, we know romney is basing that seven million jobs number on a study by john diamond from rice university. diamond published that study on august 3rd. but here is the catch. diamond is also quoted in the "national journal" saying it is not politically possible to pass that sort of tax plan and create seven million new jobs over the next decade. remember romney's promising 12 million in just his first term. that is a pretty lofty goal. it would be one of the strongest growth periods in recent history and would mean we would have to add a quarter of a million jobs every single month. but several economists are saying those jobs are coming just as part of the natural economic recovery and they'll happen no matter who is president. more bill press is coming up after the break. we are live in chat.

current.com/billpress. i.q. will go way up. how are you ever going to solve the problem if you don't look at all of the pieces? >>tv and radio talk show host stephanie miller rounds out current's morning news block. >>you're welcome current tv audience for the visual candy. >>sharp tongue, quick whit and above all, politically direct. >>you just think there is no low they won't go to. oh, no. if al gore's watching today...

he he

>> broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv, this is the "bill press show." >> bill: what do you say? good morning everybody. great to see you today. it is thursday, october 4. the morning after the first presidential debate. and lots to talk about. lot of people asking what happened to president obama? why didn't he show up? the message i got about midnight last night from one anguished friend of mine. we'll cover the debate every which way we can in this last hour together. good to see you today. we're coming to you live on your local progressive talk radio station and on current tv. good to have you with us whether

you're watching or listening to the program this morning remember you're part of the show. we've got a seat here at the table for you. got an empty seat right there. take the seat. join the conversation by giving us a call at 1-866-55-press. in studio with us, following the debate last night and doing some excellent work, reporting on the campaign so far for politico, he has joined us several times on the phone. we finally got him in studio. reed epstein. good to see you this morning. >> good morning, bill. >> bill: good to have you with us. you're not in denver. you had a whole crew out there. >> we had a whole crew. we're on the rotation system. i will probably be at the next couple of debates. here at the mothership. >> bill: in fact, the vice presidential debate is the next one, right? >> next week in kentucky. >> bill: next week in kentucky. thursday night? >> thursday night. on the 11th. a week from tonight right? >> bill: right. on the 12th, remind you again

i'm going to be down in asheville at avenue m at 6:00 p.m. for a little book signing so the 11th is a vice presidential debate. we'll talk about that for sure. reed, good to have you with us today as well as our entire team here. peter ogborn and dan henning. hello, guys. >> how you doing? >> bill: fine. cyprian bolding who has a special shirt on today. making the point that mitt romney had better keep his hands off of big bird. because cyprian big bird supporter. >> romney lost the vote of my 7 and 4-year-olds last night. yes, indeed. >> bill: the debate last night got off -- there was one sort of moment of harmony and unity and levity and it came at the very beginning of the debate. president obama's first message. he figured i better get this one out right now because if i forget it, i'm going to be in deep trouble.

>> obama: i just want to wish, sweetie, you happy anniversary and let you know that a year from now we will not be celebrating it in front of 40 million people. >> bill: it was the obama's 20th wedding anniversary yesterday. mitt romney got off his first zinger of the night in response. >> romney: congratulations to you, mr. president on your anniversary. i'm sure this was the most romantic place you could imagine here with me. congratulations. >> bill: do you think he calls ann sweetie? >> sweetie. >> bill: anyhow. we're excited to have reed epstein in studio with us. diana degette congresswoman from colorado will be joining us in the second half of the hour. reed overall having built up all of -- this build-up to the first debate was incredible. >> for weeks we heard about mitt romney prepping --

democratic convention in vermont. holed up at his lieutenant-governor's house. working on this debate and last weekend we saw the story in the times about how he had been practicing zingers. it was really, you know -- >> bill: and how their plan was to -- basically call president obama a liar on point after point after point. nicely but challenge the facts everything obama said. >> what we saw was romney aggressive and obama not. and you know i think from about 20 minutes into the debate, you wondered where barack obama was. where the barack obama from the campaign trail was. all of the -- the big key points of his stump speech whether it's outsourcing or talking about women's health or immigration or don't ask don't tell or recently, the 47% all was missing last night. >> bill: the unfairness, if

you will, of the romney/ryan tax plans. >> the only mention of paul ryan was when he brought up the medicare plan. he didn't go into talking about giving money to the rich or how there was a tax policy center analysis that said it would take what 2500 middle class people to pay for tax cuts to each individual tax person. obama left all of that on the table last night and it was sort of -- >> bill: here's the question. which is why? either the president was tired -- i've heard that. or they had made a deliberate decision not to be aggressive, just to be basically eloof right. let romney be the candidate who was really working trying to make points and president obama kind of be above it all. if they made that conscious decision, i think it was a mistake. or the president got there and

just was nervous and blew it. it is hard to believe. >> this is somebody who has basically been on television and been in the limelight every day since the beginning of 2007. and for him to lay an egg like that is just baffling, given sort of what our expectations are of him where we've seen him in the past. whether it was in debates four years ago or in big moments. if you remember going back to the boston speech in 2004 where he told a friend that he would like -- like lebron james or michael jordan, he rises to the big moment. that didn't happen last night. >> bill: no. there is some particular -- the thing that struck me and angered me the most watching at home, i mean i felt -- i have to -- i felt that i have defended president obama better than he defended himself last night. there were several occasions where i said god, i could have answered that better than that. one particularly was this $716

billion. cut out of -- which governor romney accused again president obama of cutting from existing medicare benefits basically. and he said it three different times. every fact checker independently has debunked that claim. president obama never once last night told the truth. it was a lie. that's a big deal. if you're telling people who are seeing this for the first time, oh, my god obama cut $716 billion out of my medicare and obama never said no, that's not true. >> he wasn't sharp on any of his attacks on romney. he didn't -- you know, the thing -- the biggest part of that to me was when romney started talking about how his tax plan wouldn't increase the deficit. and obama didn't really come to a sharp point about how can you possibly cut tax -- bring in a 20% marginal tax rate cut without increasing the deficit.

obama in a soft, round about professorial way made that point but not in a way that hit home to people. >> bill: or that you could understand. he did say look, it is just math. it is arithmetic but then he didn't follow through and give the arithmetic. >> which is especially strange since he has been doing that on the campaign trail, on the stump. he's been very sharp in bringing that up and having it be a crowd-pleasing moment in front of his audiences but he didn't do it last night. >> bill: romney would say look i just said i'm not going to have any tax cut that will add to the deficit. so how can you accuse me of that because i just said i won't have a tax cut that will add to the deficit. that's ludicrous right? just because he says it doesn't mean -- look at his plan. his plan would in fact -- again, president obama could could have pointed it out. it would have added to the

deficit. on the taxes on that point we're talking about president obama did say suddenly, mitt, you seem to have changed your mind. this is maybe as sharp as the president got all night which wasn't very sharp. peter if we have that cut. of the president where he had said mitt romney has $4 trillion in further cuts and then another trillion dollars in defense spending. >> obama: for 18 months, he's been running on this tax plan. and now five weeks before the election, he's saying that his big, bold idea is never mind. >> bill: that was it. >> that was the extent of the zingers from the president last night. >> bill: so the big question then is not only why didn't the president come in with a stronger showing. but does this change the course

of the campaign? >> i think means that the second debate -- you know, the best that the president can do after the second debate is to get back to level. and i think that you know, you're probably going to see the president be a lot more aggressive at romney in the second debate. people are going to have him watch this debate. they'll show the split screen of romney talking and obama looking down and while romney -- while the president spoke romney sort of looked up with the sort of reaganesque -- head about 15 degrees looking out. that's a tough picture for the president. he looked -- like you said, he looked tired. he looked like he would rather have been somewhere else. and he's got no choice but to come out and be more aggressive. then when he does, the stories are going to be about the contrast between him and the first debate and the second debate. >> bill: it is worth pointing out that the first debate is the one that really counts. there's never -- there will be

nowhere near the audience, never is to the second debate that there is watching the first debate. >> not only that but you're going to be judged based on how you did in the first debate. so even if he comes -- shows up in two weeks on long island at the second debate and knocks out of the park, it will be well, look how he did compared to the first debate and it will be reminders of how lousy he was last night. >> bill: but back to the central question, there is no doubt that the republican party feels re-energized this morning. mitt romney feels re-energized this morning. let's face it. the last -- the few weeks before the debate were not -- were pretty rough road for the romney campaign. and some people were already starting to write their obituary. they've got new life this morning. is it enough to change the direction of this campaign? which certainly was going in the direction of obama winning. >> it will be -- i forget messina or plough said tell me

what the polls look like in colorado and iowa. the national polls that show them neck and neck are a couple of points that don't really mean anything. what's important are ohio, florida, virginia, colorado, iowa. and if the polls in those states start to move romney's way, it will be big trouble for the president. >> bill: looking back. "the new york times" and i'm sure you probably in politico have also done stories looking back at previous presidential debates, not many have moved the needle very far. >> if you remember the first debate in 2004 when probably the best analogy when president bush slept walk through the debate with john kerry. >> bill: everybody said john kerry won that debate. >> kerry had that -- the big moment where he said saddam hussein did not attack us. osama bin laden did. it really knocked president bush for a loop for a moment. and that was what sort of -- what carried the day for the next couple of days.

president bush recovered the next couple of debates. he was better. and it certainly helped bring him closer to president bush but it wasn't enough to put him over the top. >> bill: so there is the question. last night's debate. what happened to president obama? why didn't he come with a little more energy to the debate last night? why didn't he fight back? why didn't he take advantage of the opportunities to rebut some of mitt romney's statements? and do you think it will change the course of this debate? reid epstein from pretty colco is our -- from politico is our guest. call 1-866-55-press. >> announcer: this is the "full court press." the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv.

>>and now to my point. that is a whole bunch of bunk! the powerful my steal an election but they cannot steal democracy.

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